JPH0737163B2 - Printer device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus applied to a video printer or the like.

[Conventional technology]

The structure of a conventional printer device is shown in FIG. In the figure, (1) is a microprocessor that controls the entire printer device, (2) is a print command button, and (3).
Is a print data processing circuit, (4) is a print mechanism unit for actually printing, and (5) is a print data input unit.

In the above structure, the user can instruct the print command button (2).
When is pressed, the print data from the print data input section (5) is processed by the print data processing circuit (3), and the data is printed by the print mechanism section (4) controlled by the microprocessor (1). .

By the way, in a thermal transfer type color printer, for example, the dyes and pigments of the three primary color ink sheets of yellow, magenta, and cyan or the four color ink sheet with black added thereto are thermally transferred to the image receiving paper by a thermal head in order to perform color transfer. Generating an image. Therefore, the printing time is 3 to 4 times as long as that of the monochrome printing capable of producing an image by one transfer. For example, it usually takes about 1 to 2 minutes for A4 size print.

Conventionally, the user needs to know the progress of the printing process after the start of printing by checking the movement of the receiving paper or ink sheet, such as the reciprocating motion in the printing process of the receiving paper, until the printing is completed. The only way to guess is.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

As described above, the method of knowing the print progress time from the movement of the image receiving paper or the like is possible when the image receiving paper or the like is exposed from the printer device, but all the prints are made in the device without exposing the image receiving paper or the like. In what is being done,
It is impossible to know how far the print is progressing.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to obtain a printer device in which a user can arbitrarily grasp a print progress state.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The printer device according to the present invention is capable of displaying a time measuring means for measuring the print progress time after the print start command, a time measuring output according to the print progress from the time measuring means, and an output showing an operation state other than the time measuring output. Display means is provided, and the display means displays the timekeeping output during printing and displays an output indicating an operation state other than the timekeeping output during non-printing.

[Operation] In the present invention, since the print progress time is displayed on the display means every moment during printing, the user can easily grasp the progress of the print regardless of the movement of the image receiving paper or the like.

In addition, since the operating state other than the time output is displayed on the display means except during printing, the user can easily check the remaining amount of the image receiving paper and the like.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a printer device according to the present invention. The same parts as those of the conventional device are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In the figure, (6) is a display drive circuit, which is activated by the timing output from the microprocessor (1) which also serves as a timing means for timing the print progress time when a print command is issued. ing. (7) is a display driven by the display drive circuit (6), which is composed of, for example, a 2-digit 7-segment display element, and the display drive circuit (6) indicates the print progress time as hourly time. It constitutes a display means (8) for displaying.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

When the print command button (2) is pressed, the print data from the print data input section (5) is processed by the print processing circuit (3), and the print data is controlled by the microprocessor (1). 4) prints.

On the other hand, at the same time when printing is started by the print command, the microprocessor (1) counts the print progress time in units of, for example, 1 second, and sends the count value to the display drive circuit (6) for display. The element (7) displays the count value. For example, in this example, when the print command button (1) is pressed, the display element (7) is displayed as "00", and as the printing progresses, a count-up is displayed every second.

In this way, the print progress time can be visually confirmed by the display of the display element (7), and the print progress status can be grasped even when the movement of the image receiving paper or the like is performed inside the printing apparatus and cannot be seen from the outside, It is easy to use.

The printing progress is not limited to counting up every one second, but may be counting down.

Further, the display device (7) is not limited to the display element of 7 segments, and various deformation means can be adopted. Further, the time measuring means is not limited to the constitution in which the microprocessor (1) is also used, and may be an independent one.

The display means (8) can be configured to be used for displaying the remaining amount of the image receiving paper or for displaying an error such as a paper jam, etc., except during printing.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the display means displays the time output according to the progress of printing during printing, so that the user can easily directly grasp the progress of printing and at the time other than during printing. Since the output indicating the operation state other than the clock output is displayed, the user can easily confirm the remaining amount of the image receiving paper, for example, and a convenient printer device can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a printer device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional printer device. (1) ... Timekeeping means (microprocessor), (8) ...
... display means. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A clocking means for timing a print progress time after a print start command, and a display means capable of displaying a clocked output from said clocking means according to a print progress and an output indicating an operating state other than this clocked output. The printer device is characterized in that the display means displays the timekeeping output during printing and displays an output indicating an operating state other than the timekeeping output except during printing.